Reversible compression of an optical piston through Kramers dynamics

TL;DR

This paper investigates the reversible transition between stable and bistable states of a Brownian bead in an optical piston, using Kramers' theory to precisely analyze energy exchanges and thermodynamic properties during the process.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method based on Kramers' theory to analyze the stochastic motion and energy balance of an optical piston during phase crossover.

Findings

The deformation of optical potentials correlates with heat production.

The energy balance of the crossover can be precisely evaluated.

Thermodynamic processes can be finely controlled via optical landscape design.

Abstract

We study the reversible crossover between stable and bistable phases of an over-damped Brownian bead inside an optical piston. The interaction potentials are solved developing a method based on Kramers' theory that exploits the statistical properties of the stochastic motion of the bead. We evaluate precisely the energy balance of the crossover. We show that the deformation of the optical potentials induced by the compression of the piston is related to a production of heat which measures the non-adiabatic character of the crossover. This reveals how specific thermodynamic processes can be designed and controlled with a high level of precision by tailoring the optical landscapes of the piston.